- We Build Your Dream

info@atztechnology.com

8 Different Types of Guerilla Marketing with Example, Strategy, Ideas for Startups

Guerilla Marketing, its popularity, types, importance

It is hard for common people to use those two words “ Guerilla and Marketing”. Though, it works hand in hand. You/we/ Everyone can easily connect the word “Guerilla” with rebellion or conflict and that can be picturized in your mind. 

Well, just to make it clear, guerilla marketing has actually got nothing to do with some kind of combative mode of communication, rather, it’s a types of Guerilla marketing that requires a great deal of creativity and unconventional ideas. 

It is quite popular nowadays for all the positive outcomes, it brings for businesses and product/service advertising. 

Just the way it’s out of a box-type of marketing, the concepts of it are absolutely kind of complex to digest at once. So let’s start getting to know it and also the segments that fall under the umbrella of guerilla marketing.


Table of content


Guerrilla Marketing & Its Advertising Definition

Guerrilla marketing is an unconventional marketing method to surprise a small group of people or a location to interact one on one to promote a particular product or service with the smallest budget.

“Guerrilla marketing … has now become an umbrella term for any unconventional marketing tactic (Kotler and Keller, 2008).”

Buzz Marketing, Types, Advantages, Disadvantages, Tips

Guerilla marketing has little similarity with traditional marketing since it might not do widespread media campaigns in the traditional way, rather focus on a smaller group of promoters. 

The motive is these groups will then get the word out in other locations. Guerilla marketing also relies heavily on personal interactions most of the time and might consider a very little budget for the campaigns. 

8 Different Types of Guerilla Marketing with Example 

Under the roof of guerilla marketing lie distinct styles of advertising:

8 Different Types of Guerrilla Marketing with Example 
  • Ambient Marketing
  • Ambush Marketing
  • Astroturfing
  • Buzz Marketing/Viral Marketing
  • Grassroots Marketing
  • Stealth Marketing
  • Street Marketing
  • Wild Posting

1. Ambient Marketing

As a definition of ambient marketing, it can be said that the idea of ambient marketing refers to the particular type of marketing strategy, where the advertisement of a product or a service is done with a very unusual object, or the placement of the advertisement would be really something unexpected. 

In a nutshell, the process of the advertisement and the outcome, both of them would be something that people could hardly imagine beforehand.

No doubt that effective ambient marketing is sure to surprise people to a great extent. As a result, it will create a significant influence on the mind of the customers, since the advertisement is placed very intelligently. 

Also, there is this wow factor attached, so all of these things as a whole make it possible to make an effective communication bridge and a bonding between the marketer, that is, the brand and the customers.

2. Ambush Marketing

The term “Ambush Marketing” was first coined by marketing guru Jerry Welsh. However, till now, the idea has not been really defined very rigorously. 

Basically, it means when a company or a brand wants to ride on a major kind of event’s publicity value and make the most use out of it, even though the company did not contribute to the event’s financing through sponsorship.

We can visualise this kind of marketing while Olympic games or world cups are going on, the rivals of the official sponsors mainly do ambush marketing for their own benefit.

3. Astroturfing

First coined out as a term by the U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas in 1985, astroturfing is a situation, where companies and also in some cases individuals as well, will try to hide the true motive by masking it, under the guise of grassroots marketing.

Astroturfing is comparatively more debatable stuff one must agree, since misinformation and literally paying others to give a positive review-these kinds of activities are often done for it, but the thing is, it can help generate publicity to a great extent and can sway public opinion too. 

4. Buzz Marketing

Buzz marketing or viral marketing is all about increasing the word of mouth potentials of a campaign or product to the maximum extent, either by conversions among the customers or through social media platforms or maybe through some different mode of communication.

Nowadays, marketers prefer this type of marketing because we all know that the best form of marketing is always the word of mouth and by doing buzz marketing effectively, it is being maximized to the greatest extent.

Also, in this case, all-encompassing contents are provided in most cases so there is hardly the fear of missing out, on the part of the marketers.

5. Grassroots Marketing

When a company is creating highly specific content for a small group of customers effectively suitable for them, then it’s nothing but grassroots marketing. 

It is similar to word of mouth strategy, however, remember that, unlike other marketing strategies, grassroots marketing is not focused on outreaching the maximum number of customers through the usage of the content, for this, the target group is very small. 

However, it’s expected that this small group will be sharing the experience that they have from the content with others and thus creating a viral effect. Grassroots marketing can often be more cost-effective since the primary target group is not a very huge one.

6. Stealth Marketing

What-is-Stealth-Marketing

Stealth marketing refers to the particular type of marketing when the customers will be marketed but they won’t recognize it immediately on their part.

This is considered very effective for the advertisement of a product or service that is relatively new in the market, doesn’t have any publicity till now and requires an immense level of awareness to meet the target.

When marketers do stealth marketing, their primary focus is not on the fact that the market sales are increasing right then or not, because that is actually not the motive for stealth marketing at the root. 

Rather, this marketing tactic is applied so that a necessary amount of interest is being raised among customers regarding a product so that they become more receptive to the upcoming or further direct advertisements.

7. Street Marketing

We all are very used to the sight of a massive billboard on streets but seldom do we see a manhole covered with an art piece. Whenever we are going to see something like this, we are bound to stop at least for a few seconds and pay out=r attention to it, and when we are doing it, the marketer behind the site becomes successful in advertising the product.

So street marketing is basically creative marketing tactics done in the roads and streets and other public places. As a whole, there’s a difference between street marketing and guerilla marketing. Street marketing must take place offline (bus stops, park benches, light poles, manhole covers, crosswalks, lobby doors, trash cans and so on). But guerilla marketing doesn’t have such a boundary, it might happen both online and offline.

8. Wild Posting

In this type of advertising, static pictures are placed in numerous locations, mostly in urban-densely populated areas, obviously to gather more attention from the customers. It’s not that expensive and highly used for album releases, concerts etc.

Guerilla Marketing Examples, Strategy and Ideas for Startups 

There are plenty of ideas and examples for startups or for the b2b marketing business. So, see some of the examples of guerilla marketing examples:

Example

Gamify: Gamify is a marketing tactic or strategy which plays with the audience and after a certain point they send you to your store. And you give them a discount, coupon or one on one buy gift options.  

M&M’s Eye – Spy Pretzel chocolate starts promoting a puzzle game to M&M’s Eye – Spy Pretzel game users have to find a single pretzel to hide the M&M’s puzzle. And this single Facebook post got 26,783 likes, 11,459 comments, and 6,302 shares. 

Treasure Hunts: treasure hunts involve audience participation. For example: posting something on social media and people need to find out a particular thing ( it can be the product symbols or something else). After completing the task those people will get a reward for some gift, discount, digital code or a valuable product. 

Flash Mobs: Flash mobs perform a group of individual performers on a predetermined location on a task or action. Some organizers hire a number of actors, or they simply arrange the particular community members to enjoy and participate in the flash mobs to spend the massaging or make promotions under the flash mobs. 

Undercover Marketing: This marketing process is to hide and disguise himself among the targeted audience. For example: in 2002 sony’s launch a  campaign and hired an actor to travel around the city and ask people to take a photo of them. During that time the actors interact with the audience and talk about that phone’s cool features of the new phone to encourage them to know more about the phone. 

Here is the Fast Lane example and idea for guerilla marketing.

Guerrilla Marketing: Shockingly Great Marketing On A Small Budget:

Guerilla Marketing: A Further Insight

While doing guerilla marketing, most of the time, the marketers are seen to depend on viral marketing strategies and word-of-mouth tactics. 

Despite using a smaller group, ultimately a huge number of people can be brought under the possibility of converting into potential customers.

One thing to remember, there is a cool connection between guerilla marketing and the emotion of people here. By using people’s emotions rightfully and effectively in the context, you can expect splendid success for your business.

Now guerilla marketing is not going to be very efficient for all types of products. However, You can use the traditional ways of marketing for the rest, when you are introducing something “edgy”. 

Something is a totally unconventional or really innovative type of product or service, at that very time, you might want to consider guerilla marketing to use for the advertisement.

Also, try to target that particular segment of your customer group, who are mostly the younger generation, because chances are there that they would be more likely to accept newness positively. However, you should always decide it depending on the existing context.

From the past guerilla marketing campaigns that have been successful, most of them were conducted in public places, where the mass was present. 

You might consider streets, concerts, public parks, beaches, festivals, sporting events, and shopping centres for your upcoming guerilla marketing campaign. 

Keep in mind that, the more efficient and effective you can be to choose the right place at the right time, the more likely you will be to run the campaign successfully. 

By the way, there might be some legal issues that are related in some cases, so deal with them to avoid further complications for your campaign.

Why is Guerilla Marketing So Popular?

Nowadays, you can see that there are lots of companies thinking of jump-starting their marketing campaigns. 

Especially the smaller companies, that need to think about budgeting quite a few times before initiating a campaign, are considering guerilla marketing for the promotion of their product or service because it can be really budget-friendly for them.

To run a successful guerilla marketing campaign, you won’t be needing to put a huge amount of money at stake, rather, it can be done with a very little amount of capital. 

All you need to have is an abundance of energy to use and a very serious amount of creativity- for both, no money is needed at all. No need to mention that the capability of thinking out of the box can be really handy in these cases.

While running the campaign, the more attention you will be able to gain from the passers-by in the streets or the place where you are conducting the campaign, the more interest there will be growing within them and the more successful your campaign will be in the end. 

Most of the time, people get so excited that they cannot just stop sharing, snapping and raving about the product that is being marketed, and that is the most important thing to make sure, otherwise, the whole campaign might just go in vain. 

Guerilla marketing is going to produce an emotional pull among the customer that will keep attracting them towards the brand and the product. 

It’s a marketing tactic that just doesn’t advertise, but creates a significant matter, trust, between customers and the brand. 

Final Words:

Although it’s not mandatory for all of us to apply each types of Guerilla Marketing marketing for the promotion of our business. We better be a bit careful while choosing the right type of tactic, since each one is perfect or more effective for a particular reason/context.

However, no matter which one you are pursuing, of course, don’t forget to explore the highest level of creativity possible for you and grow the attention of your customers to the largest extent. In this way, it’s expected that guerilla marketing will be contributing to the growth of your business.

References:

×